Search results matching tags 'PowerPivot' and 'Excel'http://sqlblog.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?o=DateDescending&tag=PowerPivot,Excel&orTags=0Search results matching tags 'PowerPivot' and 'Excel'en-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)Possible #powerpivot issue removing Excel 2016 going back to Excel 2013http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2016/02/29/possible-powerpivot-issue-removing-excel-2016-going-back-to-excel-2013.aspxMon, 29 Feb 2016 11:05:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:60715sqlbi
<p>Today I observed an issue on a notebook where Excel 2016 was installed and then removed, going back to Excel 2013.</p>
<p>After this operation,&nbsp;workbooks having a Power Pivot data model were working correctly by&nbsp;navigating data in PivotTables, but any operation in the Power Pivot window (such as adding columns, tables,&nbsp;or&nbsp;editing measures) was failing. The error was a TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY and it was caused by a type library not removed uninstalling Excel 2016.</p><p>I solved the problem by removing the following key from the registry&nbsp;</p><p>[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{00020813-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\1.9]</p><p> (<b>WARNING:&nbsp;DON'T TOUCH THE WINDOWS REGISTRY IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING -&nbsp;use&nbsp;the following link&nbsp;to get more&nbsp;detailed instructions and always do a backup first</b>).</p>
<p>I&nbsp;found <a href="http://kb.palisade.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&amp;id=528" mce_href="http://kb.palisade.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&amp;id=528">this article</a> that describes the&nbsp;problem as a possible issue in all the versions of Excel!</p>Apply AND instead of OR logic to multiple selection in a slicer #dax #powerpivot #powerbihttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2015/11/17/apply-and-instead-of-or-logic-to-multiple-selection-in-a-slicer-dax-powerpivot-powerbi.aspxTue, 17 Nov 2015 07:55:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:59977sqlbi
<p>I recently write a <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/articles/apply-and-logic-to-multiple-selection-in-dax-slicer/" mce_href="http://www.sqlbi.com/articles/apply-and-logic-to-multiple-selection-in-dax-slicer/">small article</a> on SQLBI to describe how to create a DAX measure that search for items that have all the items selected in a slicer, instead of any of them. For example, you might want to create a measure that display how many customers bought at least one product for each of the categories selected in a slicer. You cannot change the behavior of the slicer itself, that applies a filter to the calculation, but using DAX you can iterate the selected items and make sure that each one exists in another set of items (such as the products bought by a customer). I think it could be an interesting technique also for different applications (I would be happy to read your ideas in the comments!). You can <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/articles/apply-and-logic-to-multiple-selection-in-dax-slicer/" mce_href="http://www.sqlbi.com/articles/apply-and-logic-to-multiple-selection-in-dax-slicer/">read the complete article on SQLBI</a>.</p>Calculate New, Returning, Lost, and Recovered Customers in #daxhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2014/06/26/calculate-new-returning-lost-and-recovered-customers-in-dax.aspxThu, 26 Jun 2014 07:13:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:54272sqlbi<p>Calculating the number of new and returning customers is a recurring question. I would say this is a “classical” Business Intelligence problem, very common in marketing department. I worked on these problems with many customers, with small and large datasets, and I wrote a DAX Pattern “<a href="http://www.daxpatterns.com/new-and-returning-customers/">New and Returning Customers</a>” showing how to calculate:</p> <ul> <li><strong>New Customers</strong>: customers who never made any purchase</li> <li><strong>Returning Customers</strong>: customers who bought something in the past</li> <li><strong>Lost Customers</strong>: customers who bought something but did not buy in the last N days days</li> <li><strong>Recovered Customers</strong>: previously “lost customers” who made a new purchase</li> </ul> <p>This is not a brand new topic, you can find many other blog posts on this topic (<a href="http://cwebbbi.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/counting-returning-customers-in-dax/">Chris Webb</a>, <a href="http://javierguillen.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/determining-customer-retention-in-dax/">Javier Guillén</a>, <a href="http://blog.gbrueckl.at/lost-customers/">Gerhard Brueckl</a>, <a href="http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2013/01/new-customers-per-day-technique-by-david-hager/">David Hager</a>, <a href="http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2013/01/new-customers-per-day-generalized-to-new-customers-per-month-etc/">Rob Collie</a>), so my goal was to show very generic formulas that were generally the best solution in term of performance. This make the formula less readable, such as the following:</p> <p><code>[Returning Customers] := <br /></code><code>COUNTROWS</code> <code>( <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160; CALCULATETABLE</code> <code>( <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; VALUES</code> <code>(</code> <code>&lt;customer_key_column&gt; </code><code>)</code><code>, <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; VALUES</code> <code>(</code> <code>&lt;customer_key_column&gt; </code><code>)</code><code>, <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; FILTER</code> <code>( <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; ALL</code> <code>(</code> <code>&lt;date_column&gt; </code><code>)</code><code>, <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;date_column&gt; &lt; </code><code>MIN</code> <code>(</code> <code>&lt;date_column&gt; </code><code>) <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; ) <br /></code><code>&#160;&#160;&#160; ) <br /></code><code>)</code></p> <p>As you see, using CALCULATETABLE ( VALUES ( table[column] ), VALUES ( table[column] ), … ) seems a useless thing. Why counting the rows returned by VALUES and passing it also as a filter argument? This is a not so intuitive behavior of CALCULATE. The first argument is an expression that will be evaluated in a modified filter context. The third argument is a FILTER on the date column, which extends the range of dates considered, including all the past sales transactions. At this point, the first VALUES would return any customers who made a purchase in the past, but the second argument will only considered those that made a purchase in the <em>current selection</em> of time. The final result is an AND condition between two sets of customers (the intersection of the two sets), which is faster than trying to calculate the number of past transactions of each customer who made a purchase in the current selection of time, filtering only those that results in zero transactions.</p> <p>In general, I prefer using more readable DAX formulas, also in DAX patterns, optimizing them only when necessary. But in this case the performance might be important (visible to the user) also with a few thousands of customers. As usual, any feedback on the <a href="http://www.daxpatterns.com/new-and-returning-customers/">New and Returning Customers</a> pattern will be very welcome!</p>Tips for adapting Date table to Power View forecasting #powerview #powerbihttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2014/05/20/tips-for-adapting-date-table-to-power-view-forecasting-powerview-powerbi.aspxTue, 20 May 2014 06:07:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:53862sqlbi<p>During the keynote of the PASS Business Analytics Conference, Amir Netz presented the new forecasting capabilities in Power View for Office 365. I immediately tried the new feature (which was immediately available, a welcome surprise in a Microsoft announcement for a new release) and I had several issues trying to use existing data models.</p> <p>The forecasting has a few requirements that are not compatible with the “best practices” commonly used for a calendar table until this announcement. For example, if you have a Year-Month-Day hierarchy and you want to display a line chart aggregating data at the month level, you use a column containing month and year as a string (e.g. May 2014) sorted by a numeric column (such as 201405). Such a column cannot be used in the x-axis of a line chart for forecasting, because you need a date or numeric column. There are also other requirements and I wrote the article <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/articles/prepare-data-for-power-view-forecasting-in-power-bi">Prepare Data for Power View Forecasting in Power BI</a> on SQLBI, describing how to create columns that can be used with the new forecasting capabilities in Power View for Office 365.</p>Connecting to #powerpivot from an external program (such as #Tableau)http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2014/02/26/connecting-to-powerpivot-from-an-external-program-such-as-tableau.aspxWed, 26 Feb 2014 07:59:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:52975sqlbi<p>Many people requested me how to connect to Power Pivot from an external program, without publishing the workbook on SharePoint or on Analysis Services Tabular. I always said it is not possible (for both technical and licensing reasons), but someone observed that Tableau is able to extract data from a Power Pivot data model connecting directly to the xlsx file. I wanted to investigate how they solved the limitations that exists.</p> <p>From a technical point of view, you have to install a Tableau Add-In for Power Pivot Excel (it’s <a href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/support/drivers" mce_href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/support/drivers">available</a> for both 32 and 64 bit). Then, you connect using the Tableau Desktop software selecting the Microsoft Power Pivot connection. You choose a local Excel file and click Connect. The list of perspective appears in a combo box.</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/connect_664AFBDA.png" mce_href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/connect_664AFBDA.png"><img width="398" height="430" title="connect" style="border:0px currentColor;border-image:none;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-left:0px;display:inline;background-image:none;" alt="connect" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/connect_thumb_63A4D0DA.png" border="0"></a></p> <p>You click ok and you navigate into the Power Pivot data model. But what’s happening? Tableau runs an Excel instance (probably by using Excel object model) and then connects through the Tableau Add-In for Power Pivot that you installed before. Probably this add-in acts as a bridge between the process running Excel and the process running Tableau. This solve the technical problem, and it would be interesting to know how to use the same add-in from other programs without having to write the same add-in again. I know many ISVs that would love to do that!</p> <p>But before starting your project in Visual Studio to do the same (after all, it shouldn’t be rocket science writing such a connector), consider the license agreement (EULA) of Office. It says that “<i>Except for the permitted use described under "Remote Access" below, this license is for direct use of the software only through the input mechanisms of the licensed computer, such as a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen. It does not give permission for installation of the software on a server or for use by or through other computers or devices connected to the server over an internal or external network.</i>”. It seems we are in gray area here. The access to Excel is not direct. But at the same time, it is not made on another computer, and technically you are using keyboard, mouse and/or touchscreen when you are using Tableau Desktop.</p> <p>This is certainly an unsupported scenario (and if the background Excel process hangs for any reason, you have to kill it in Task Manager). But if the licensing allows that, or if Microsoft tolerate this, probably many companies writing software (I have a long list of requests I received…) could be interested in doing the same.</p> <p>I would love to hear some official word on this topic…</p>Common request: export #Tabular model and data to #PowerPivothttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/06/19/common-request-export-tabular-model-and-data-to-powerpivot.aspxWed, 19 Jun 2013 12:04:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:49713sqlbi<p>I received <a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/790217/export-tabular-model-and-data-to-powerpivot">this</a> request in many <a href="http://www.ssasworkshop.com/">courses</a>, messages and also <a href="http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlkjpowerpivotforexcel/thread/b0058dd2-9ca1-4e82-b4ba-e0c4e6eeb6ff/">forum</a> discussions: having an Analysis Services Tabular model, it would be nice being able to extract a correspondent PowerPivot data model. In order of priority, here are the specific feature people (including me) would like to see:</p> <ul> <li>Create an empty PowerPivot workbook with the same data model of a Tabular model</li> <li>Change the connections of the tables in the PowerPivot workbook extracting data from the Tabular data model</li> <ul> <li>Every table should have an <em>EVALUATE ‘TableName’</em> query in DAX</li> </ul> <li>Apply a filter to data extracted from every table</li> <ul> <li>For example, you might want to extract all data for a single country or year or customer group</li> <li>Using the same technique of applying filter used for role based security would be nice</li> </ul> <li>Expose an API to automate the process of creating a PowerPivot workbook</li> <ul> <li>Use case: prepare one workbook for every employee containing only its data, that he can use offline</li> <li>Common request for salespeople who want a mini-BI tool to use in front of the customer/lead/supplier, regardless of a connection available</li> </ul> </ul> <p>This feature would increase the adoption of PowerPivot and Tabular (and, therefore, Business Intelligence licenses instead of Standard), and would probably raise the sales of Office 2013 / Office 365 driven by ISV, who are the companies who requests this feature more. If Microsoft would do this, it would be acceptable it only works on Office 2013. But if a third-party will do that, it will make sense (for their revenues) to cover both Excel 2010 and Excel 2013.</p> <p>Another important reason for this feature is that the “Offline cube” feature that you have in Excel is not available when your PivotTable is connected to a Tabular model, but it can only be used when you connect to Analysis Services Multidimensional.</p> <p>If you think this is an important features, you can <a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/790217/export-tabular-model-and-data-to-powerpivot">vote this Connect item</a>.</p>DAX Studio for Excel 2013 finally available! #dax #excel #powerpivot #ssas #tabularhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/05/04/dax-studio-for-excel-2013-finally-available-dax-excel-powerpivot-ssas-tabular.aspxSat, 04 May 2013 05:49:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:48963sqlbi<p>I'm so happy that <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/tools/dax-studio/">DAX Studio</a> finally supports Excel 2013! As <a href="http://geekswithblogs.net/darrengosbell/archive/2013/05/04/new-release---dax-studio-1.2-with-excel-2013-support.aspx">Darren Gosbell described in his blog</a>, this release has a few internal changes that will better support future enhancements. I will port the code to capture the query plan for a query in this new release, but unfortunately it will require some weeks because I'm traveling a lot in these days.</p><p>If you write DAX formulas and queries for PowerPivot or Analysis Services Tabular, DAX Studio is a must have tool: do you really want to live without a DAX Editor? There are a lot of possible improvements and I hope other contributors will give their help to <a href="http://daxstudio.codeplex.com/">this Codeplex project</a>.</p>PowerPivot Workbook Size Optimizer #powerpivot #tabularhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/04/30/powerpivot-workbook-size-optimizer-powerpivot-tabular.aspxTue, 30 Apr 2013 10:50:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:48929sqlbi<p>Microsoft released the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=38793">Workbook Size Optimizer for Excel</a>, the first version of an Excel add-in for <strong>Excel 2013</strong> that inspects the data model and suggest possible optimizations. Fundamentally, it tries to apply the best practices descripted in a <a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/04/03/optimize-memory-in-powerpivot-and-ssas-tabular.aspx">white paper I mentioned</a> a few weeks ago, removing useless columns and changing granularity to those that could reduce the overall memory cost of a table.</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_600F7B61.png"><img title="image" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;float:left;padding-top:0px;padding-left:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;padding-right:0px;" border="0" alt="image" align="left" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_thumb_6D095B72.png" width="96" height="97" /></a>There are different setup available in the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=38793">download page</a>, depending on operating system (Windows 7 or Windows 8) and on Office version (32 or 64 bit). Once installed, you have a new tab in the Excel ribbon, called Workbook Size Optimizer, showing a single button that starts a wizard.</p> <p>I tried to run the optimizer with a workbook where I imported several tables from Adventure Works Data Warehouse sample database. The first page shows a few information about the workbook size and the option of automatic detection or manual choice of rules. The latter is an option you can request also later, so I started with the default.</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_24DB9F96.png"><img title="image" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-left:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;padding-right:0px;" border="0" alt="image" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_thumb_5CADE3B9.png" width="620" height="423" /></a></p> <p>After a short analysis, I received three smart suggestions (considered the model I have). We might wonder that removing UnitCost is a smart thing, because it could be required in order to perform calculations and rounding the value might be not correct for our analysis. </p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_575EFD08.png"><img title="image" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-left:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;padding-right:0px;" border="0" alt="image" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_thumb_763570E6.png" width="620" height="423" /></a></p> <p>Since I requested to apply some changes, I have the option of changing which rules to apply. This corresponds to the choice you have if you choose “Let me choose the rules myself” in the first screen of the wizard.</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_2E07B50A.png"><img title="image" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-left:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;padding-right:0px;" border="0" alt="image" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_thumb_4CDE28E8.png" width="620" height="423" /></a></p> <p>I kept all the rules and after I click Next I had to wait several seconds in order to complete the optimization process. The result shows a few information about the result of the job.</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_3DC74A0E.png"><img title="image" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-left:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;padding-right:0px;" border="0" alt="image" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/image_thumb_0A8B10A5.png" width="620" height="423" /></a></p> <p>This is a good starting point. Don’t blindly trust any suggestion and try to consider carefully the rules to apply in order to avoid losing important data for your analysis. Moreover, you might have a better knowledge of your data model than a wizard and consider the deletion of many useless columns (for your analysis) that are not identified by the wizard. My article <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/articles/checklist-for-memory-optimizations-in-powerpivot-and-tabular-models/">Checklist for Memory Optimizations in PowerPivot and Tabular Models</a> contains several best practices that you can apply to your data model.</p>LASTNONBLANK and FIRSTNONBLANK functions work with any column #dax #powerpivot #ssas #tabularhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/04/19/lastnonblank-and-firstnonblank-functions-work-with-any-column-dax-powerpivot-ssas-tabular.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 10:28:50 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:48789sqlbi<p>During a <a href="http://www.powerpivotworkshop.com/">PowerPivot Workshop</a> course we received an interesting question from a student: “Can I use LASTNONBLANK (and FIRSTNONBLANK) with a column which is not a date column?”</p> <p>The reason is that we introduce LASTNONBLANK in the Advanced Time Intelligence module, because its typical use case is on a date column. However, you can use these functions on any column, which raises the question about what happens at that point. The sort order used is the one that depends on the data type of the column. If it is a Text column, the alphabetical sort order is the reference order. If it is a number, then the numeric order is the reference.</p> <p>What happens if a column has the “Sort By Column” property set to another column? This sort order is <strong>*not considered*</strong> by LASTNONBLANK and FIRSTNONBLANK functions. Even if a PivotTable shows you data sorted according to Sort by Column property, any DAX formula ignores such a sort order. Thus, be careful writing your DAX queries if you have to do some assumptions on the sort order of a column using DAX functions that rely on sort order, such as LASTNONBLANK and FIRSTNONBLANK.</p>New PowerPivot 2013 book available! #excel #powerpivothttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2013/04/02/new-powerpivot-2013-book-available-excel-powerpivot.aspxTue, 02 Apr 2013 11:25:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:48472sqlbi<p>Our new book about PowerPivot 2013 is finally available in printed edition, too!</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/excel2013powerpivot_2250BF29.png"><img title="excel2013powerpivot" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;float:left;padding-top:0px;padding-left:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;padding-right:0px;" border="0" alt="excel2013powerpivot" align="left" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/excel2013powerpivot_thumb_5F2540FB.png" width="204" height="240" /></a>The title is <strong><a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/books/excel-2013-building-data-models-with-powerpivot/">Microsoft Excel 2013: Building Data Models with PowerPivot</a> </strong>and it is a partial rewriting of the previous book about <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/books/powerpivot-for-excel-2010-give-your-data-meaning/">PowerPivot for Excel 2010</a>. In the previous book we had a target audience that included advanced Excel users and BI developers, because at that time there was no option to get the same engine in Analysis Services. But 30 months are elapsed, a new version of Analysis Services has been released and in this new book we focused mainly on Excel users. For this reason, we wrote a comprehensive book of all the feature of PowerPivot, but most important we tried to pass concepts of data modeling that might be pretty obvious for a DBA and a BI developer, but are completely new to an Excel user that never had the ability to create a data model with more than one table.</p> <p>This book is focused on Excel 2013, so we included specific feature of this release related to PowerPivot, such as writing DAX queries and linked back tables, and features unique to Excel 2013, such as Power View. However, all of the PowerPivot features (so the 85% of the book) are good also for <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspx">PowerPivot for Excel 2010</a> in its latest release (<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29074">SQL Server 2012 SP1 PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010</a>), so you can safely use this book for both version of Excel.</p> <p>You can download the first chapter of the book from the <a href="http://www.sqlbi.com/books/excel-2013-building-data-models-with-powerpivot/">book page on SQLBI web site</a>. And if you want to attend a training in a classroom or online, look at the complete list of available trainings on <a href="http://www.powerpivotworkshop.com/">PowerPivot Workshop</a> web site. The next <a href="http://www.powerpivotworkshop.com/courses/#online">online courses</a> are scheduled on April 22-24, 2013 and June 17-19, 2013 (following online workshops are every other month).</p> <p>Here are the links to directly order the book on Amazon around the world:</p> <ul> <li>Amazon.com: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=se04-20">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=se04-20">kindle</a></li> <li>Amazon.ca: <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=s087a1-20">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=s087a1-20">kindle</a></li> <li>Amazon.co.uk: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=wwwsqlbicom08-21">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=wwwsqlbicom08-21">kindle</a></li> <li>Amazon.de: <a href="http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=wwwsqlbicom00-21">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=wwwsqlbicom00-21">kindle</a></li> <li>Amazon.es: <a href="http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=wwwsqlbicom0f-21">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=wwwsqlbicom0f-21">kindle</a></li> <li>Amazon.fr: <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=wwwsqlbicom06-21">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=wwwsqlbicom06-21">kindle</a></li> <li>Amazon.it: <a href="http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/0735676348/?tag=wwwsqlbicom-21">hardcopy</a> – <a href="http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00BWYPAGC/?tag=wwwsqlbicom-21">kindle</a></li> </ul> <p>And here is the list of chapters:</p> <ul> <li>Chapter 1 Introduction to PowerPivot</li> <li>Chapter 2 Using the unique features of PowerPivot</li> <li>Chapter 3 Introducing DAX</li> <li>Chapter 4 Understanding data models</li> <li>Chapter 5 Publishing to SharePoint</li> <li>Chapter 6 Loading data</li> <li>Chapter 7 Understanding evaluation contexts</li> <li>Chapter 8 Understanding CALCULATE</li> <li>Chapter 9 Using Hierarchies</li> <li>Chapter 10 Using Power View</li> <li>Chapter 11 Shaping the Reports</li> <li>Chapter 12 Performing Date Calculations in DAX</li> <li>Chapter 13 Using Advanced DAX</li> <li>Chapter 14 Using DAX as a Query Language</li> <li>Chapter 15 Automating Operations Using VBA</li> <li>Chapter 16 Comparing Excel and SQL Server Analysis Services </li> </ul> <p>This book should help you starting with PowerPivot at the very beginning, and you will probably use only the first chapters at that point. Over time, you will use following chapters and will learn more advanced techniques. This is not a book you can digest in a couple of days (after all, it is 500 pages long!), it will be your companion for several months, until you will master PowerPivot!</p>